A new wind by your side
by Sariachan-KokiriLeaf
Summary: A story inspired by the third Naruto opening song and focused on the inner development of Gaara, Temari and Kankurou right after the Chuunin Exam. Sand siblings' fans may like it.
1. Chapter 1

WARNING!!! Reading this fanfic you are going to find heavy spoilers if you haven't arrived yet to the 16th book of the manga or if you haven't seen to the episode 81 of the anime!  
P.S. This is the English translation (thanks _Kinopio_ for your help!) of the original story, "Un nuovo vento al tuo fianco", which is written in Italian language.

* * *

**A new wind by your side  
_Chapter 1_**

«Let's stop».  
«A-are you sure that…».  
«I said to stop».  
«Ok…».  
Without further hesitations the two genin, a boy and a girl, put on the ground the kid they had hold up until that moment. By now the three of them had been running for many hours, but finally the shadows of Konoha's forest seemed to become thinner: they were approaching to the Fire Country's western ranges.  
It was since the last battle that silence had descended on them… Not that they had ever communicated so much as well, save the strict necessary during missions. Even if they were in the same squad, the group's components spoke to each other almost as foreigners, not like who has often fought alongside. But an attentive observer would have soon understood that the three kids weren't simple companions… The three ninja were siblings.  
Siblings united yet divided by a past they would in great part want to forget, and by a present difficult to accept, and who had reached a sort of mutual understanding only after many hardships. But then something had happened that shook their world…an unexpected fact which erased all they had managed to create, but opened new ways at the same time.

«Gaara are you sure you can make it by yourself?».  
«Don't worry».  
The black-hood ninja became silent again. Temari looked at him: Kankurou seemed very tired, maybe he had yet to regain his chakra drained by the bugs of that Konoha's extravagant ninja...  
«Why don't we stop to rest, tonight? By now it's almost one day we have been running without a break», the kunoichi proposed taking advantage of that moment of pause.  
«But some Leaf's ninja could be on our tracks…».  
«I doubt it, they wouldn't push themselves so far towards their Country's ranges only to capture genin like us», the girl contradicted him.  
As soon as the elder of her brothers was about to answer back, Gaara cut short saying: «I want to sleep, for tonight we are going to stop here».  
Sleep? Gaara couldn't sleep! Did he want to provoke another disaster?!  
Then the older teens looked at him and understood he had to be worn out, maybe more than them…whether he was to sleep or not, surely he needed some rest.  
«I'm going to stand guard, all right?», Temari asked.  
«Fine with me», was Kankurou's reply, while Gaara only nodded before retiring aside and disappearing in the shade.  
Little by little the few trees were becoming scarce substituted by a wasteland, and their foliage stood out against a sky of a shade of red and getting darker by the passing of time. But soon, the sun disappeared to make room for a quiet night with no moon.

Everything was enveloped by silence, interrupted only by rare cries of some wild animals, sign evidence of the three genin being far from inhabited places…who could want to live in a such desolate land, after all? Not people from the Fire Country, surely. To Temari it seemed ironic that, on the other hand, it existed people born and raised in the desert like her.  
The girl was used to put aside her own weaknesses and worries, but while she was awake alone ready to perceive the smallest suspicious noise, she found herself thinking about her home. What would happen, when they'd come back? Temari was worried about the consequences of a war she hadn't approved since the beginning…like many of other of their father the Kazekage's decisions. But she and her brothers weren't more than their village's tools, and to obey orders was every ninja's duty.  
«Damn…», the girl cursed silently, then she sighed and tried to think about something else.  
As it was predictable, the first thought that came up in her mind was the very one she had managed to push aside until then: what was Gaara doing, now? He said he wanted to sleep, but Temari hardly believed it was possible. Even if she had to admit that lately she was surprised more than once…  
Turning her head, the kunoichi couldn't hide a smirk: Kankurou surely hadn't that type of problems, for he was deep asleep!  
Coming back to survey their camp's surroundings, Temari noticed the sky was becoming brighter, even if the sun had yet to rise from behind the mountains. In a short time they would have to start to travel again.

The girl yawned trying to drive away the sleep. Unlike her brothers she didn't fight to the end of her strength and so had decided to stay up for them, but the battle of two days before against that Shikamaru had weakened her anyway. At the end he let her win, giving up…  
«Another thing I have yet to understand», she thought, but soon remembered about much more urgent facts: where did Gaara get to?  
«Better to search for him…».  
After a brief exploration of the surroundings she found him resting on some uncomfortable looking rocks. Still he was sleeping without doubt… But why did he hide there, instead of remaining near the camp?  
Probably her brother had acted that way out of habit, fearing someone could kill him while asleep. Maybe, Gaara decided to depart also to assure them a certain advantage to run away, if Shukaku would come into the open. But mainly, Temari believed that Gaara wanted to protect himself.  
Yet the sand would have act by itself, in case he'd been attacked… Only then Temari understood: the sand, usually carried by him in the shape of a huge gourd, was scattered on the battle field.  
«But his most powerful weapon is still hidden _into_ his body…», she thought.  
Her gaze went to her brother's black circled eyes, on his hair as red as the blood of his countless victims, and then over the sign indelibly impressed on his forehead. Temari always asked herself how he had gotten it…neither she or Kankurou ever found the courage to ask it, and naturally Gaara didn't give explanations about that matter. His two elder siblings only knew that symbol was in some way connected to the "incident" of many years before, the one when their uncle Yashamaru was killed.  
What they knew for certain was that from that day Gaara changed. Temari couldn't remember any moment she hadn't felt fear close to her brother, but after Yashamaru's death Gaara's gaze became even more cold and distant. And since then, nobody could approach him anymore.  
After all, Gaara had been betrayed by the only person he believed loved him…  
Looking again at her sleeping brother, Temari became aware she wasn't frightened anymore.  
She couldn't explain it, but a new feeling had replaced the fear, and it confused her.  
After several minutes she had been watching him, Gaara didn't give hints of waking up yet.  
Temari noticed his expression was strict even while unconscious…she didn't know how her brother could have managed to sleep, but she realized he could never put his guard down completely neither while asleep. If he had done it, the demon who possessed him from birth would get the upper hand and use him, destroying his personality little by little.  
His clanged fists and the lids which tightened now and then, like if Gaara was fighting an invisible enemy, hadn't escaped Temari's acute gaze.  
«All right then, I think I'm going to leave him asleep a little more», the kunoichi decided, and without doing the smallest noise she went out the thin stone hollow she has found him in.  
At that moment she detected steps behind her…could it be that some Konoha's jounin followed them there? Finding in a moment her usually coldness again Temari suddenly turned, her hand to her huge fan she carried on her back: if it was necessary she was ready to fight… But in front of her she only saw Kankurou.  
Her brother raised an eyebrow, bewildered by Temari's lightening reaction, then he beckoned her to follow him. After having go away of about twenty meters the boy turned to his sister, talking to her with an half-smile: «You shouldn't be so tense…by now we have almost arrived in the Wind Country! However I've come to tell you that I'm going to stand guard, for you should be tired».  
«It seems Gaara wants to regain all the sleep he lost since he was born…», Kankurou added in low voice.  
The kunoichi would have given everything for some hours of sleep, so she agreed his proposal with gratitude, even if she didn't show it, and lay down on the couch the brother had prepared the evening before.  
Kankurou instead climbed up a tree a little taller than the others, a good place to keep eye on an area of about one hundred meters. «I shall keep my eyes wide open…», he thought, while placing next to him the pack he usually carried on his back. «If someone suddenly attacked us it will be better to have Karasu at hand», and saying it he loosened the bends which covered his lethal fighting puppet.  
Meanwhile the sun had risen, and thanks to the light of the day it was possible to see the sands of the endless desert that took up most of his native land. From his hideout, Kankurou calculated that to reach the border they would take less than a day when Temari had regained her strength.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**

* * *

**

_This is the first part of a four chapters story I've already completely written, please R&R!  
P.S. I hope it doesn't have errors, if it has please tell me!_


	2. Chapter 2

WARNING!!! Reading this fanfic you are going to find heavy spoilers if you haven't arrived yet to the 16th book of the manga or if you haven't seen to the episode 81 of the anime!  
P.S. This is the English translation (thanks _Kinopio_ for your help!) of the original story, "Un nuovo vento al tuo fianco", which is written in Italian language.

* * *

**A new wind by your side  
_Chapter 2_**

«I'm sorry…».  
These two words still echoed into the mind of the genin whose traits were now completely visible, for his make-up had long melted mixing with sweat.  
More than once Kankurou had hated his looks. Even if he didn't resemble much his younger brother their blood tie was evident anyway, and it procured him several problems. He and Temari weren't feared as Gaara but yet they were "the monsters' siblings", as the other ninja of their village had labelled them.  
Actually, puppeteer's technique requested a black uniform which permitted to hide in shades, and face painting was also part of mimetic. But Kankurou's make-up was also a mask to hide to himself and to others who he was.  
«I'm sorry…».  
Those words again…the boy's thoughts returned to a couple of days before.  
He and Temari had found their younger brother fallen to the ground, worn out after what must had been a terrible battle against that surprising Leaf's ninja: Uzumaki Naruto. Kankurou hadn't watched the fight, but Temari told him enough to make him guess what had happened; the signs of destruction on the battle field, as the condition in which they found Gaara had told him the rest.  
But what really surprised Kankurou wasn't having found him worn out (even if this had never happened before), but the gaze of his eyes.  
Eyes tired of never be able to close…tired of being slave of Shukaku, the Sand's Relic of which he was the medium.  
Kankurou found himself pondering about all this without even realizing it. Before then, the only thing he had worried about when close to his brother was that he could kill him or Temari, as he had often threatened to do.  
Looking to him for once without fear, instead, in his impenetrable eyes Kankurou had discovered a sight of something new and surprising: it was, maybe, hope? In that moment, for the first time in his life Kankurou didn't see in Gaara a monster to fear, but a brother.  
Gaara even apologized to them…but why? For having frightened them and made them comply with any whim of his? Or because he lost the battle against the three Leaf Village's genin? No, they hadn't really been defeated, at least as a squad. Two of the opponent ninjas had lost consciousness, and the third one would have been easily defeated when he remained without the aid of his companions.  
But Gaara chose to let them live.  
Kankurou thought that Naruto had to be a really amazing guy, if he was able to go trough the wall his brother had erected around himself since Yashamaru betrayed him… A wall infinitely harder to destroy that his famous "absolute defence".  
But Kankurou's reflections were suddenly interrupted by a movement in the distance: someone was going towards their camp!

Just in the same time, in the shades of his hideout Gaara opened his eyes wide. In the slumber he had sensed Shukaku's grip become more and more strict on his mind and, by instinct, he woken up before the situation became too much dangerous.  
For some reason the technique which Gaara practised since quite an amount of time had finally became to work…may it be connected to the fight of two days before? Anyway, the genin felt surely better; he knew that sleeping would be always dangerous, but at least from now on he would be able to rest (at least for brief periods of time).  
Going out of his hideout, Gaara noticed the sun already rose…why Temari didn't wake him up? After few steps he saw his sister lay down on the small camp that, as it seemed, she and Kankurou had have prepared the night before; but of the latter one there wasn't any sign. Gaara remained to look at her for some instants, while she slept with the head posed on her arm; over her body had been hastily put down some little branches to camouflage her.  
«I would like to know where that bungler of Kankurou is…».

Moving without the heavy gourd he usually brought with him was more comfortable, the Sand's genin soon understood, but the increased speed implied a greater exposure to eventual enemy attacks. But Gaara didn't have choice: after the battle against Naruto both time and strength lacked him to pick up the sand shattered around them. At least, now he could move at incredible speed throwing himself from a tree to another, while his eyes carefully studied the surroundings…  
The boy hadn't come very far from the place he had found Temari when he suddenly stopped: he had seen a jounin familiar to him.  
«Baki…».  
His headgear's veil, taken in a way to leave visible only one eye, was unmistakable. Furthermore, Gaara noticed his master wasn't alone: other Sand's ninjas were carrying Kazekage's canopy.  
«Father», said Gaara between clanged teethes already feeling the hate growing inside him, as every time he was in his presence. The young ninja wouldn't really talk to neither of them, so he stayed hidden between branches and watched the short procession passing. Survivors' faces were dark and tried: «The attack failed», he soon understood, but that didn't matter to him. Till that time he had served his village as a lethal tool to use at the truest moment, not more or less than any weapon; but now he felt that his life maybe valued something more. For this, he had decided that he would never give to Shukaku the opportunity to take the upper hand again: «Your last battle has been the one against that Na…».  
Gaara hadn't even finished to formulate such a though that an unbearable pain assaulted him, making him take his head in the hands. The monster sealed inside him wanted to punish him for having dare to pone it his own will, he instantly understood. From his temples, stabs spread over the whole medium's body, as if thousands of sand's grains were trying to pierce into his flash by force.  
«It's useless…I wont let you to come out…», the genin said clutching his teeth to avoid screaming, while he tried to reject the impulse to kill which was awakening in him.  
But the pain disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Shukaku, at least this time, chose to leave him in peace…  
Little by little the boy found his clearness again, and watching the small cortege that by now was walking behind him he realized Kankurou followed the group from several metres away. Gaara read on his face a troubled expression: why did he often rise his gaze towards Kazekage's canopy? What had happened?  
As to reply his questions, his brother frowned the eyebrows and ran to Baki almost yelling: «Who did it?».  
Their master hesitated before replying, as he was searching the best words for what he was to reveal. Then he slowly explained: «It's all Orochimaru's plan…we have found the Kazekage and his escort lifeless from at least a month, so even before the beginning of the exam for the chuunin selection».

Gaara was alone again; he had let the small group of ninja pass without make them notice him, he staying hidden among tree branches. Sunset painted red the wasteland around him…  
How could he have been fooled that way? The boy couldn't believe it: the Kazekage…his father, the person he most hated in the world, killed by a stupid conspiracy organized by that disgusting Sound's ninja.  
«Six years ago, every day I desired that you disappeared…but it should had been me to kill you!».  
Gaara closed his eyes, trying to control his frustration; he knew Shukaku always lay in wait, ready to take advantage on his every negative emotion to come into the open…  
The news of his father's death had caught him unaware… Thoughts followed one another so fast in his mind that Gaara couldn't dwell upon no one of them, and even more confused they were the emotions awakening in him: hate, anger, delusion…and maybe sadness, too.  
Then Gaara asked himself why he never tried to destroy Suna, the village which had always rejected him. With it, he would have also wiped out all the people who glanced him with grudge…his father for first.  
Gaara reopened his eyes, tired of being tormented by so much doubts, and the first thing he saw was a leaf lightly floating on the ground in a spiral movement…  
«Uzumaki Naruto».  
At first he didn't estimate him as his possible opponent, he had seemed to him only a loud and insignificant kid; mainly, he had seemed weak to him.  
Instead he made a mistake. Not only he proved to be his same level, but he had also been the first person to talk him in that way. The first one to understand him…to show him he was wrong to believe of being able to become really strong loving only himself.  
_«I was like you, I hated those cold glares, I hated the loneliness that enveloped me»_, he told him, _«But now I've found people that have acknowledged me…people to love and protect!»_.  
The words of the Leaf's ninja had revealed to Gaara how Naruto had suffered a destiny similar to his, how he had suffered his same desperation… But someway, Naruto managed to come out the emptiness of solitude.  
Finally Gaara had doubts no more: «That boy had fought beyond his limits because he felt love», Gaara thought, «Maybe, someday I will can make it, too…but I can't do it alone».

**TO BE CONTINUED...  
**

**

* * *

**

_This is the second part of a four chapters story I've already completely written, please R&R!  
P.S. I hope it doesn't have errors, if it has please tell me!**

* * *

**_

_Thanks for your review **Eternal-Night-Ride **(you were the first)! Here you are the second chapter you asked...I hope you like it! By the way, could you explain me better how can I improve the story format, please?_


	3. Chapter 3

WARNING!!! Reading this fanfic you are going to find heavy spoilers if you haven't arrived yet to the 16th book of the manga or if you haven't seen to the episode 81 of the anime!  
P.S. This is the English translation (thanks _Kinopio_ for your help!) of the original story, "Un nuovo vento al tuo fianco", which is written in Italian language.

* * *

**A new wind by your side  
_Chapter 3 _**

Indifferent at the darkness which was coming down around them, Temari and Kankurou seated next each other in silence, their eyes down and locked at a random point of the ground.  
The boy turned the end of one of the fabric stripes which covered Karasu over in his hands, while his sister held the knees on her breast with both her arms. Neither of them cried…after all, they had never really loved their father. They knew the Kazekage had always seen them only as tools to been used to reach his goal: the Hidden Sand Village's rebirth, by now in decline since many years before. To realize his dream he had even sacrificed his wife and made Gaara who he was.  
No, they couldn't love him… Then, why that feeling of emptiness?  
Maybe the two were aware of having remained really alone, without neither their father's guide, even if it has been questionable. Temari began to sense that, probably, she and Kankurou had in common with their younger brother more than they thought: all the three of them without someone they could really count upon to, all the three of them basically alone…  
Why they hadn't realized it before?  
But things were going to change, the girl promised to herself. After all, her brothers were the only family left to her by now, and she would have done everything to not lose them as well.  
Temari guessed Kankurou was feeling her same emotions: fear, bewilderment, but most of all loneliness…a loneliness Gaara always lived together.  
Feeling themselves like their younger brother for the first time, the two ones asked Baki to precede them: they hadn't any clue where Gaara went but they knew that sooner or later he would come back, so they were going to wait him.  
When they remained alone, Temari broke the silence: «We shouldn't have betrayed the alliance with the Fire Country….our village had just sacrificed many lives to obtain peace, for what purpose if it had to go this way?».  
Her voice trembled, Kankurou noted surprised.  
«Don't worry, Baki said to me he had persuaded Konoha's elders to renew the alliance with us», he tried to comfort her. «Furthermore, the three of us are still alive…isn't it the most important thing?».  
«Kankurou is right, Temari».  
«Gaara!», the two exclaimed suddenly lifting their heads… As always they hadn't heard him coming.  
«G-Gaara…we have to talk…».  
«I already know everything», their younger brother stopped them, «Let's catch up with the others».  
That said he began to walk while Temari soon stood up to follow him, imitated by Kankurou.  
The twocouldn't imagine how he could already be informed of the situation, but avoiding to talk about it was a relief for both of them, so they didn't ask explanations.

After almost a week of travelling the small group of ninja saw Suna's huge gates; the town rose stately from the sands restlessly swept from the fierce winds of that land, which was called "Wind Country" not for nothing.  
The desert stretched for kilometres and kilometres in any direction, blazing during the day and icy at nights, like at the time of their arrival to the village's gates.  
Temari allowed herself a moment of rest before going in and, her hands on her hips, she lifted the face to see the night full of bright points: always clear and lacking of clouds (except the ones of the frequent sand storms), Wind Country's sky was wonderful with its billions of stars and milky galaxies.  
«As a child, when I was sad I looked at the sky and it seemed to me that any problem vanished….», Temari murmured some moments after.  
«What a stupid thing to do», Kankurou replied. But he stopped to admire the sight over their heads, too.  
Gaara stood silently next to them, his arms folded, while the light of some stars reflected also in his imperceptible turned up eyes.  
«Well, do you want to hurry and come in or we must leave you outside?», Baki called them back.  
Beginning to walk, the three siblings finally crossed Sand Village's gates: they were at home again.

Gaara, Temari and Kankurou's life had taken its usual course, between training and missions sometimes assigned to them. But in spite of the apparent normality, the village was in constant state of alert fearing Orochimaru's attack, who couldn't have appreciated their sudden turn-about at favour of a renewed alliance with the Leaf.  
Apparently it seemed nothing had changed even in the relationship between the three genin, but in reality something had; above all, Gaara hadn't killed anymore only to affirm his existence.  
Not that he wasn't less hated by his village's inhabitants for this, no…they continued to look at him in fear. But Gaara cared about it no more, because that same glare had disappeared from the eyes of the only two people who had always been someway close to him.  
Yet, some nights Temari still waked with a start... After coming back in Suna, the girl had hoped that her night time awakenings were things of the past, but evidently they weren't. The kunoichi knew she had nothing to fear anymore, at least not from Gaara, but it seemed her subconscious had remained affected by the many years passed with the fear a disaster could happen at any moment.  
During one of these sudden awakenings, Temari thought about the herself of only few month before… Then she certainly couldn't sleep calmly, with Shukaku ready to overwhelm her youngest brother at any moment. Kankurou used to bar the door of his room, for whatever good it was, but Temari wasn't so naive to hope that kind of precautions could contrast Gaara's demoniac form.  
And so her slumber had always been light.  
The girl asked herself how she could had lived constantly under pressure for all those years… Feeling as she was suffocated at the memory of that life, she went to the window of her room to breathe the cool nocturne wind.  
Lay on the windowsill, she lingered over to watch Sand Village's houses, noticing for the first time how they were different from the ones of places with a less impervious climate as Konoha. Suna's buildings were build in clay or stone, rounded to not offer friction to the desert's fierce winds, with flat roofs more similar to terraces than to real roofs (which wouldn't be useful in a place where it never rained). Therefore it wasn't rare that Sand's inhabitants came up on the top of their houses, but what Temari saw perplexed her anyway: the figure lay down on a roof not very distant wasn't maybe…her father?  
«How is it possible?», the kunoichi murmured confused, but she understood of have mistaken: that one was Gaara! But he had something different than usual.  
Once her eyes conformed to the darkness, Temari clearly saw that he was dressed as their father…why? Her brother, in fact, wore the same ninja uniform the departed Kazekage took under the white and blue tunic and cap, symbols of his status.  
His sister kept watching Gaara for some minutes, then yawned and came back to bed, deciding the next morning she would ask him an explanation.

**TO BE CONTINUED...  
**

**

* * *

**

_This is the third (and the shortest) part of a four chapters story I've already completely written, please R&R!  
P.S. I hope it doesn't have errors, if it has please tell me!

* * *

__  
Thanks **Eternal-Night-Ride** for your suggestions...I'll try tofollow them in my next fanfic! _


	4. Chapter 4

WARNING!!! Reading this fanfic you are going to find heavy spoilers if you haven't arrived yet to the 16th book of the manga or if you haven't seen to the episode 81 of the anime!  
P.S. This is the English translation (thanks _Kinopio_ for your help!) of the original story, "Un nuovo vento al tuo fianco", which is written in Italian language.

**

* * *

Anew wind by your side  
**_**Chapter 4**_

Gaara had acted on impulse. That evening he felt more uneasy than usual and, without even realizing it, he found himself in his parents' room. Almost a whole wall was taken up by a big wardrobe high to the ceiling, which he opened to take one of the outfits still maintained into it. Afterwards, he undressed of his usual clothes and put it on; it was a little large but it could work anyway. Finally he jumped trough the window to the nearest roof, where he often seated when he couldn't sleep.  
The new suit was quite comfortable, furthermore it better protected him from the desert wind. Actually the sand itself could maintain his body temperature constant, but the armour of sand technique required a great waste of chakra; so, Gaara used it only when really forced.  
But the boy hadn't surely changed because that evening he felt cold.  
Wearing the new uniform Gaara felt a strange sensation…as when you succeed in something had seemed impossible to other people eyes. Lifted his face to the stars, his expression seemed to say: «I'm still here, you see?». And then, the genin came back into his house to rest some hours considering the mission of the next day.  
Gaara didn't notice that, even if for few minutes, Temari had been watching him.

The village was still asleep when the girl woke up to prepare breakfast. The only sounds one could hear were little bits of phrases stolen by the wind to other ninja who, as them, that day had to leave for some mission.  
After not even half an hour, also Gaara came down in the kitchen giving his sister a nod, then he seated to wait for her to finish to cook. Temari noticed he was wearing again the clothes of the night before, but just when she was about to ask him an explanation she eared some dragging steps: Kankurou had woken, finally!  
After going down the stairs the boy entered the room with his eyes still half-closed for the sleep, murmuring «Good morning» between yawns.  
Temari lightly turned her head to look at his reaction to Gaara's new clothes, but some moments passed before he was awake enough to become aware of the news. When it happened Temari quite burst into laughter.  
Kankurou couldn't hide his surprise, and was staring at Gaara so intently that the latter one gave him a black look. The boy startled and looked away, but kept staring at him out of the corner of his eye.  
«Kankurou's astounded face is priceless! I really believe I wont ask anything to Gaara, after all I'm quite sure I have understood why he is wearing it…». With a smile, the girl finally brought the meal on the table and seated in front of her brothers.  
«Maybe I could choose a new uniform, too», the kunoichi thought, «after all I'm a woman by now!». Obviously, her final aim was to make a hit with some handsome boys, perhaps during the next chuunin selection exam…many Konoha's youngsters had seemed quite nice to her, at least. Temari couldn't restrain herself to giggle and Kankurou, seeing her laughing without an apparent reason, had a further confirmation of what he had thought by a long time: his family wasn't quite normal!  
Then, with a resigned sigh, he finally turned his attention to the bowl before him.

When the three finished taking breakfast some rays of light already came in from thewindow of thekitchen: it looked as it was going to be a day hotter that ever. If that wasn't enough, that day they had to leave for a quite dangerous level B mission, so they quickly prepared themselves to go to the Daimyo's official they had had to escort to a near city.  
In the last times Kazekage's three children had trained together a lot, learning to coordinate their techniques to take advantage each one of the abilities of the others. Their battle formation provided that Gaara and Temari remained in the centre of the action to distract the enemy, meanwhile Kankurou had hidden himself in the surroundings; from his place, the puppeteer could use Karasu to caught the opponents by surprise. This tactic had another great advantage, too: it permitted Temari to focus only on attacking.  
During trainings, in fact, the girl has discovered the sand shield automatically protected her, too, at least for the time she remained into strict contact with Gaara. Consequently, her control of the wind, which she canalized as much as she liked with the fan, was getting more and more efficient. It wasn't that she could rival Gaara's ability in master sand, Temari knew well…her younger brother seemed learning new _jutsu _day after day!  
However, that day the mission had a successful conclusion without any incident happening, so the three of themhadn't the occasion to try their new techniques in a real fight.  
The evening of the second day since their departure for the mission, our genin were already on the way back. When in the Sand Village, they noticed something unusual, tough; why its streets and squares were already empty? Usually, Suna's inhabitants benefited the coolness of the evening to go and carry out all those activities which would be too much tiring during the day, but strangely it seemed everyone had taken refuge in house for some reason.  
When Temari and Kankurou began to show some signs of uneasiness, Gaara became aware of their concern and gave them a clue: «Look at the moon…».  
Then, all was clear.  
Kankurou grumbled annoyed, but he said nothing. «What do they fear?!», a piqued Temari protested instead, but calmed down when Gaara spoke again: «It's nothing».  
That evening they had dinner together as the always did by now, but soon the older genin began yawning; during the travel they hadn't ever decently slept and had walked for kilometres, so they couldn't wait to go to bed. Having greeted a good night to Gaara, both Temari and Kankurou retired in their own rooms.  
«Today the moon is full…the same as when Yashamaru died», Temari couldn't manage to not think about it, «This night Gaara will not sleep».  
Even if she was tired, the girl realized she couldn't fall asleep…

After Temari and Kankurou had gone to sleep, in the kitchen the silence descended.  
Gaara hated noisiness, but strangely he didn't feel at his ease when finally alone; furthermore, the heat gathered during the day into the house was getting more unbearable every minute that passed.  
Gaara could do only a thing: climbing up to his house's upper roof. Up there, at least, the cool wind of the night could had made less unpleasant the long hours of insomnia that waited for him.  
Seated on the rough terrace's surface, Gaara could see the whole village and the territory surrounding it. At that high the wind blew whistling, and sudden air currents hit the empty streets now and then, several metres downer, lifting sand whirlwinds. Apart the sounds of the wind, an almost complete silence seemed had cut that place out of the rest of the world.  
The whole village was drowned in the darkness but the full moon, as it rose higher and higher in the sky, began to light it with silver reflections. Far away, sand dunes rose and set in a slow but unstoppable motion….the desert was his kingdom, out there nobody would look at him in a hostile way anymore, out there he would be invincible.  
But in the desert he would be completely alone…  
In that moment, a sound diverted him from his reflections. Gaara soon recognized the chakra at his back and asked himself what Temari was doing upper there at that hour, but he didn't say anything.  
«Hem…».  
His sister seemed nervous…and she had her good reasons for it, Gaara bitterly though.  
«What do you want?» he then asked, without turning.  
«Well…».  
Temari's hesitation was making him lose his patience.  
«Are you also worried about Shukaku? Leave me alone», Gaara said keeping still.  
Taken by surprise, the girl hurried to explain: «Actually I have only come to give you this», and then she approached him stretched out a blanket with an unsure smile.  
Gaara turned to look at her but his expression remained unreadable, yet he took the blanket and put it on his shoulders. Without a word the boy went to contemplate the moon in front of him again, while Temari was coming back into the house nimbly jumping trough the nearest window, somewhat relieved.

In the following hours Gaara completely concentrated on his lonely fight against Shukaku. The moon shined bright, the same of that day of six years before, and it seemed infuse in the demon new energy… Gaara could feel its impatience, its blood thirst which risked to overwhelm him…a silent voice tempted him with growing insistence, and the desire to let himself go increased minute after minute.  
«I want to rest…», Gaara murmured, feeling that he couldn't retrain the Sand's Relic no longer.  
His hands moved by themselves, already about to form the positions for the technique of the tanuki's sleep, which would make him slept without any restrictions for Shukaku.  
First form.  
«Why should I worry for them?».  
Second form…his arms dropped alongside his hips. Some minutes passed in the most absolutes silence…  
Then something happened.  
The sand around Gaara seemed to envelop him, only a confused whirling at first but soon assuming a shape…that _being's_ shape.  
«No!» Gaara screamed, opening his eyes wide just a moment before Shukaku's spirit took possession of his body.  
In nights like that, at any cost, he would have to stay awake.

Noticing the sand surrounding him, Gaara gathered it making it to lift with a simple movement of his hand.  
The grains shined silvery in a spiral similar to a miniature cyclone, and they took the shape of two faces. The first one looked a lot like his own and seemed to look at him strictly; the second one, instead, was equal to the face in a old photo the baby Gaara had often stared at for hours. But both faces vanished suddenly as they had appeared.  
Then a third figure made out of the sand: his eyes were kind yet distant, and his dying lips repeated words still hard to forget.  
«Yashamaru…», Gaara whispered softly. Then he abandoned the sand to the whims of wind, which made it disperse carrying it high, over thehouses of the village; the last grains shined far away, before they completely disappeared.  
That night no monstrous outline stood out against the moon, searching for its prey; instead, on the roof of a well-known house a boy laid down, the arms folded under his head, and his eyes of a shade between green and blue half-opened… The red sign on his forehead, meaning "_love_", stood out in the faint moonlight.

Gaara was still up there when dawn painted the desert in gold, and under a growing bright sky he couldn't help remembering… Remembering the green Konoha's woods and the leaves which wandered without rest, like sand lifted by wind…like they wanted to reach something at any cost.  
But sometimes, it happened that a rebel leaf came out the impetuous whirl that carried it…just like the one which had chosen to pose on him, giving him hope again. The shade of a smile appeared on Gaara's traits, but it was only a moment.  
Then, the boy stood up and took a deep breath of the new wind of the morning.

**END **

**

* * *

**

_I dedicate this story to all ones that, like me, have been charmed by such a complex character as Gaara, and above all to my boyfriend (Volvagia), who accepted to be my beta-reader even if he doesn't really like fanfictions… ;)  
Furthermore I thanks a lot Kinopio for his patience, because he helped me to translate this fanfic into English.  
Finally, if you would like to see the illustration I've done for this story, you can find it this site: wwwdotsabakudotnet/konoha  _

P.S. I hope it doesn't have errors, if it has please tell me!

* * *

Thanks **Ninja Shen** for your nice review, but I've to say that those"arrow things" are the symbols used in any books for dialogues... ;)


End file.
